Children abusive due to neglect and porn

The vast majority of the 37% of children who are sexually abusing other children are not classic paedophiles but abuse due to neglect, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, and increasingly because of exposure to porn or an over-sexualised homeplace.

But child offenders respond particularly well to early intervention treatment, with international research showing a repeat offence rate as low as 8%-10%. However, unless you are living in Dublin or Galway, there are no services tailored to child offenders.

Joan Cherry, director of the Northside Inter Agency Project, which is one of only three such treatment centres in the country, admitted that “every day we have either parents or professionals ringing begging for help, but we can only cater for Dublin”.